These data were collected to examine the background
characteristics, attitudes, and reported behaviors of arrested clients
of prostitutes, with particular attention to the issue of violence
against women. Client intervention programs in four cities provided
opportunities for gathering information from men arrested for trying
to hire street prostitutes. For the study, a detailed anonymous
questionnaire was administered to men before the beginning of every
client intervention workshop in San Franc... (more info)

These data were collected to examine the background
characteristics, attitudes, and reported behaviors of arrested clients
of prostitutes, with particular attention to the issue of violence
against women. Client intervention programs in four cities provided
opportunities for gathering information from men arrested for trying
to hire street prostitutes. For the study, a detailed anonymous
questionnaire was administered to men before the beginning of every
client intervention workshop in San Francisco, California, and
Portland, Oregon. The questionnaire was also administered at a small
program in Santa Clara, California, which was modeled after the San
Francisco program. During the course of the study, the Portland
program ceased operations and a new program began in Las Vegas, which
became a significant source of data. Men were asked about their sexual
behavior, including the number and type of partners, frequency of sex,
interest in pornography, age and circumstances of first sexual
encounter with a prostitute, sexual acts performed with prostitutes,
and condom use with prostitutes. Clients were also asked about their
attitudes toward premarital sex, homosexual sex, extramarital sex, and
sex between adults and children. Other questions probed men's views
about prostitutes, the legality of prostitution, and violence against
women. Background information gathered on clients included race,
educational level, sexual orientation, marital status, work status,
socioeconomic status, age, parents' marital status, history of sexual
or physical abuse, military service, relationship history, and sexual
preferences.

The site variable in this file was blanked for
confidentiality reasons. Users are not able to identify the name or
location of the programs which individual respondents attended.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
In the late 1990s, prostitution had become an
issue of increasing concern to law enforcement officials, women's
organizations, and community members. The presence of prostitution
negatively affected the livability of neighborhoods, potentially
harmed local businesses, and was associated with illicit drug use and
other vice. Prostitutes were at high risk of contracting human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs), and prostitution had the potential to become a vector for the
transmission of STDs to clients and their spouses or partners. Perhaps
most significantly, prostitutes themselves were frequent victims of
violent crimes. Research and policy had focused attention primarily on
prostitutes rather than on their clients. In 1995, two creative
programs, Portland's Sexual Exploitation Education Project (SEEP) and
San Francisco's First Offender Prostitution Program (FOPP), began to
address the issue of prostitution differently, focusing prevention
efforts on the demand side of the supply/demand equation, the clients
of prostitutes. The overwhelming majority of men in these cities who
were arrested for paying or attempting to pay for sex participated in
the intervention programs. Some were required to attend the program as
part of their sentence, while others received reduced fines or had the
arrest purged from their records in exchange for their
attendance. Using data gathered from men attending such programs, this
study sought to provide information about this otherwise inaccessible
population. In particular, this project sought to collect information
about the background characteristics, attitudes, and reported
behaviors of arrested clients, with particular attention to the issue
of violent crime against women. The project was designed to answer the
following questions: (1) What are the background characteristics of
men who solicit prostitution? How do they differ from a representative
sample of men? (2) What types of sex-related behaviors characterize
men who solicit prostitution? (3) Why do men visit prostitutes? How
consistent are their motivations with scholarly and popular
understandings of the prostitution client? (4) What are the attitudes
of prostitution clients toward violence against women? (5) What are
the consequences of conceiving of sexuality as a commodity? (6) What
are rates of recidivism for participants in prostitution client
intervention programs?

Study Design:
Client intervention programs provided an
unprecedented opportunity to gather information from the previously
inaccessible population of men arrested for trying to hire street
prostitutes. For this study, a detailed anonymous questionnaire was
administered to men before the beginning of every client intervention
workshop in San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon. The
questionnaire was also administered at a small program in Santa Clara,
California, which was modeled after the San Francisco program. During
the course of the study, the Portland program ceased operations and a
new program began in Las Vegas, which became a significant source of
data. Both English and Spanish versions of the questionnaire were used
when the researchers gathered the data.

Sample:
Convenience sampling.

Data Source:

self-administered questionnaires

Description of Variables:
Men were asked about their sexual behavior,
including the number and type of partners, frequency of sex, interest
in pornography, age and circumstances of first sexual encounter with a
prostitute, sexual acts performed with prostitutes, and condom use
with prostitutes. Clients were also asked about their attitudes toward
premarital sex, homosexual sex, extramarital sex, and sex between
adults and children. Other questions probed men's views about
prostitutes, the legality of prostitution, and violence against
women. Background information gathered on clients included race,
educational level, sexual orientation, marital status, work status,
socioeconomic status, age, parents' marital status, history of sexual
or physical abuse, military service, relationship history, and sexual
preferences.

Response Rates:
Over 80 percent.

Presence of Common Scales:
Several Likert-type scales were used.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2000-08-04

Version History:

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.